We Are YourFAMILY LAWAttorneys

2018-02-12

Preparing for Divorce: What You Can Expect

Posted By
The Law Offices of Mark R. Hinshaw, PLC

Coming to the decision to
divorce is emotionally challenging. The road ahead to a finalized divorce can
be just as difficult if you do not know what to expect. In order to make
things easier and perhaps less intimidating for our potential clients,
our Des Moines divorce lawyers of The Law Offices of Mark. R. Hinshaw
have prepared a quick rundown of
Iowa divorce procedures you are going to want to know about.

When you work with our law firm to complete your divorce, you can expect
it to follow these steps:

We start you off with a
free consultation so we can better learn your objectives in your divorce, and so you can
decide if you want to retain our services.

We like to use intake questionnaires after we are retained to get an even
clearer picture of your divorce and how it might pan out.

We draft a petition for dissolution of marriage – a legal term for
divorce – to your liking and file it to the appropriate court on
your behalf. This is the first major step to making your divorce a reality.
We also make certain the divorce petition is served to your spouse using
a professional, reliable network of process servers we know and trust.

We discuss and complete any additional mandatory forms courts will want
to see. Certain counties or districts have unique forms. Allow us to locate
all of them for you.

We attend temporary hearings to represent your best interests in the meantime.
A temporary hearing establishes rules to follow between the hearing and
when your divorce is official, such as
child custody rules or spousal support payments.

A pretrial conference is used to discuss negotiations that could potentially
conclude your divorce disagreements before ever needing to go before a judge.

In case we have to go to court, we use discovery to find any evidence that
helps your cause that your spouse might possess, like bank statements,
testimonies from family members about how much your kids appreciate you,
and so forth. Discovery also includes us looking through your evidence
again to construct a case for trial.

The last step is the actual trial. We
fight for your rights and the best interests of yourself and your children.
You will see that we never back down and never get intimidated by the
opposition.

Not every divorce will follow exactly the aforementioned steps. Legal twists
and complications can sometimes arise unexpectedly, even with the best-laid
plans. Not to mention that you will probably be confronted with plenty
of unfamiliar emotions and uncertainties.

Our Des Moines
family law attorneys of
The Law Offices of Mark. R. Hinshaw want to reassure you that you can make it through your divorce as stress-free
as possible with our help. We are led by an award-winning team with years
of experience and the capability of overcoming any surprise obstacle in
the path while we pursue your best interests. Perhaps most importantly
of all, we act with compassion and genuinely want to lend you moral support
whenever you need it.

The information on this website is for general information purposes only.
Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual
case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt
or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.